Our hedgerows have changed colour from blue to mostly pink and yellow with some white. The Foxgloves are gorgeous and the bees love them. We heard a cuckoo on our walk around this morning. As I write I can hear two owls calling to each other. .
Looking over the hills from the Great Flat Lode across to the sea where a navy frigate is coasting up and down. It is here because of the G7 taking place in St Ives this coming weekend. There’s a missile launcher at Godrevy!
Tulips everywhere! This is our Suffragette pot of purple, white and green in a container we rather like. 
More tulips! White ones in the wall border. 
The trees along the route to Truro are greening up beautifully.
Our lovely neighbour called in today (well, not in – at a distance in the garden!) to thank us for a couple of things and brought with her a very pretty little bouquet from her garden.
I’ve made a Spiced Carrot Cake today, scrumptious! Sent some next door, of course.
Biden is to be America’s next President. Breathe again, world, things will get better now. We opened the Prosecco! And I love Kamala Harris!
Thank you all, Dear Readers for your kind words yesterday. I will reply to all the comments …….
I started my blog 9 years ago yesterday so today enter my 10th year of Beautfulthings! That’s 3,411 posts, 2,566 followers and visitors from 100 countries! Thank you all for reading, liking and taking the time to comment – all much appreciated.
We are loving our Redruth greengrocer, Grow Box, saved from closure by local traders. Today, among other things, we bought some beautiful, locally grown Heritage Tomatoes. 
I needed them in particular for a recipe I had just read in today’s Feast that comes on Saturdays with our Guardian newspaper. Here is the Tomato and Courgette Loaf with Tomato Chutney. This afternoon I met with our lovely neighbour for a cup of tea in the garden and we each had a piece of the loaf and both declared it to be delicious. 
It’s so lovely that we can still find beautiful flowers to bring indoors. Here we have some Jasmine that we pruned yesterday, some Fuchsia that we have pruned today and a Calla Lily that has been broken by the wind. 
If you read yesterday’s post and wondered what the creature was, I have added a P.S. to the post with the id that came today from the Royal Entomological Society!
A quiet day today, pootling around the garden catching up with dead-heading, weeding, and some pruning after days of hectic family fun!
Butterfly mask made for Daughter No 1
Collected from the garden
The lovely Mr S spotted this Grasshopper on the slate terrace but it didn’t hop anywhere. We think it was trying to lay eggs but the slates were not the right place to be.
Common Grasshopper
Last night’s sunset was spectacular and the colour was caught in the windows across the road from us. My Dear SIL, with whom I share a love of special words (like petrichor and serendipity) sent me a beautiful new word a few weeks ago and today I can use it to describe that lovely colour caught in the windows – enrosadira. It is used in the Dolomites where at sunrise and sunset, the rocky cliffs take on hues that vary from light yellow to bright red, to different shades of pink and violet, until the mountains disappear in the dark of night. Enrosadira is a ladin term literally meaning “turning pink” (Ladin is the ancient language of the inhabitants of the Dolomites). We get the same beautiful effect here in Cornwall!
What beautiful colouring on this bee and how glorious he looks as he searches for nectar in the Eryngium flower.
As the New Year started, work began on our local Fish’n’chip shop, just around the corner. Everything stopped during lockdown, building continued recently and today they opened so that was tea sorted! As an English teacher, the sign pleased me with its apostrophe, a little fish, in the right place!
For years we have wondered about having somewhere to commemorate my Mum and Dad and have thought that a bench near Gwennap Church where Dad found his inspiration for his best seller, “Jeremy Visick” would be just perfect. The stream that runs by is mentioned in the story too and the place really is special to all the family. Today, with the blessing of the Vicar, we met the Church warden to discuss how this can happen and where to site the bench – just to the right of the one that is there already. So delighted that this project is finally going to happen. I’ll keep you informed as things progress.
A friend sent a message today to say that in her clearing out she has found some single earrings and can I use them in my glass projects? Yes, I can! I’ve left a little bunch of sweet peas on the doorstep in exchange. 
The following words seem right in these strange and discombobulating times. I have posted them before, some four years ago.
Peace
My Mum’s favourite flowers and the brass bowl, newly polished, that she always put them in. 
The stall where we bought the anemones yesterday also had these Narcissi which have a wonderful scent.
When I was teaching teenagers, Judy Blume’s novels were absolute favourites. She broke all the rules. Her refreshingly honest children’s books were banned by hundreds of libraries and loved by generations of readers, who bought 85 million copies of classics like Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Superfudge. She spoke a lot of sense. and I love her work too. She was born on this day in 1938. Happy birthday to Judy and thanks for all the stories. 
Raindrops on flowers, one of my favourite subjects for photos…..
After having the hall, stairs and landing painted, we would like a new lampshade . I love this one but it is still in the shop.
It has been a misty, mizzly day but the Cathedral in Truro is always beautiful.
Commentator Award
